“…NICD then translocates into the nucleus where it interacts with the transcription factor CCAAT-binding factor 1 (CBF-1) to activate transcription of several essential Notch target genes including hairy/enhancer of split 1 (HES1) and hairy/enhancer-of-split related with YRPW motif 1 (HEY1) (Weinmaster, 1997;Lai, 2002;Ehebauer et al, 2006). It has been demonstrated that HES1 and HEY1 regulate osteoblast differentiation through the modulation of Runx2 and osteocalcin expression (Zamurovic et al, 2004;Zhang et al, 2009).This purported role of Notch signaling in osteoblast differentiation, however, is somewhat controversial, as a number of previously published studies argue both for and against the hypothesis (Tezuka et al, 2002;Sciaudone et al, 2003;Zamurovic et al, 2004;Deregowski et al, 2006;Hilton et al, 2008;Zanotti et al, 2008;Zhang et al, 2009).To complicate matters, previous studies have also implicated the Wnt/b-catenin signaling pathway in the regulation of osteoblast differentiation (Gong et al, 2001;Kato et al, 2002;de Boer et al, 2004;Bodine and Komm, 2006;Shi et al, 2007). …”